epitome of the male, and she'd never begun to imagine that such a man could show so much sensitivity.
'Think you can?' he asked.
She gazed into his eyes and stroked her fingers over his cheek, savoring the shaven flesh. 'Piece of cake,' she told him, and she set both palms against his face, bringing him down to her. She reached for his mouth first with the tip of her tongue, rimming his lips with that delicate touch before she molded her mouth to his. She felt the great rush of his breath and the fascinating hardening of his body, muscles tensing and stretching and tautening with his growing sexual excitement.
Earth, wind...and fire. It was Eden.
She felt his touch against her, her breasts, her hips, the curve of her buttocks, the soft flesh of her inner thigh. His kiss seared her, and when his lips left her flesh, the breeze came to kiss it afresh. He whispered words that meant nothing and everything, and she knew that she whispered in return, like a breath of the sea, like the cry of the waves. Each cry, each whisper, was fuel to the fire, and each fire was a lapping flame creating sensation anew, a heightened tension. She dared anything. She touched him intimately; she exulted in the swell and pulse of him. She soared to the heat and thunder of his rhythm, and she felt the tiny little piece of death that blacked out the world with the wondrous force of the climax that he brought to her upon the beach just as the very first touch of dawn burst upon it to bathe their Eden in beauteous magenta.
Floating as if she were indeed adrift upon the waves, Alexi returned slowly to the earth beneath her, feeling again the fine grit of the sand and the coolness of the ocean at her feet. His arms went around her, and she rested on them. Only then did she shiver, watching the sky as the first tiny arc of the sun peeked out over the horizon like a shy young maiden.
'It's morning,' Rex murmured.
'It certainly is,' Alexi agreed. She shifted up onto her elbows. Rex stood and walked into the water, hunching down to splash water against his face, then standing again to stare out at the rising sun.
Alexi smiled, biting her lower lip. The sun was beautiful--but not nearly so magnificent as the man who stood before it, a tall, strong silhouette against that golden arc. She liked the whole of him very much, she decided, from the breadth of his shoulders to the muscles of his buttocks and thighs. She wondered if there was any more wonderful way to meet a lover than to come to him in this Eden, as he termed it.
He turned back to her. At her expression, he arched a brow.
'I'm deciding,' she told him.
'Oh?'
'Mmm.' She hesitated just a moment longer. 'Can't decide. I like the frontside as much as the backside,' she told him at last.
His dark brow arched higher. 'Saucy wench, aren't you?'
'I tell it like it is.'
He laughed and reached a hand down to her. She took it and stood and slid her arms around his neck and enjoyed kissing him in the light bath of sunlight. She loved feeling their naked, sandy flesh brush together.
He loved the feel of her breasts and hips against him, the feel of his sex against hers....
No, no, no, no, no, he thought. He could fairly well guarantee the privacy of his Eden by night, but not by daylight. God alone knew when the meter reader might decide to show up.
He broke away from her, found her dress and slipped it quickly over her head, then hurriedly searched for his trousers.
'All that talk and time to get my clothes off!' Alexi complained. 'Now you're shoving me back into them!'
'I'm the jealous type,' he told her, stumbling into his briefs. Alexi, still searching for her panties but comfortably clad in her dress, had to laugh as she watched him. He cast her an indignant glare that offered a definite threat once he was capable of standing straight.
Alexi held out a hand in a defensive gesture but kept laughing. 'Don't be offended. I was watching you before, and you were just wonderful. Primal man--Atlas in the flesh. You really were just beautiful against the rising sun.'
'Thanks,' Rex muttered. He glanced up at her as he zippered his fly; then he started to laugh. 'What?' Alexi demanded. 'Green hair.' 'What?'
'You have a lump of seaweed there. Left side--ah, you've got it.'
She stared at him reproachfully, then started to smile. He stretched out his hand again and said, 'I could stay here forever. But I'm afraid we might have some company.'
Alexi nodded happily, curling her fingers around his. 'Breakfast, Mr. Morrow? My place?'
'Sounds good. Let's pick up Samson first, though, huh? Emily went home yesterday, so he's been locked up all night.'
Alexi nodded, lacing her fingers through his. She smiled as they started walking barefoot over the carpet of pine that led to the beach. 'My purse and shoes are in the car. It's morning and you can't hear a thing but the breeze and the seabirds. I really do love it here.'
Rex shot her a quick glance. Alexi, staring at the sky, didn't notice the penetrating quality of his gaze.
'Do you?' he said.
'Hmm?'
'No city lights.'
'Well, everyone likes the city now and then. But, Rex--'' She paused, looking at him with a very slight but honest, open smile. 'This is like Eden. Don't you imagine that Pierre Brandywine must have thought the very thing when he first built the house for Eugenia?'
'You're a romantic,' he told her.
'So are you,' she said challengingly.
Was he? he wondered. Surely not.
They had reached his house. Samson came bounding out when Rex whistled. Rex asked her to hang on a minute while he got some clothes. 'I'm really into sand when we're playing in it,' he told her with a grimace, 'and salt and all the rest. But I think I need a shower now, huh?'
'And where are you taking that shower?'
'With you.'
'Presumptuous,' she said with a sigh. But when they started out again, she had to stop. It was broad daylight now, with the bright, bright morning sun climbing higher in the sky. She stood in front of him, and she only hesitated for the fraction of a second. 'Thank you, Rex. Thank you so very much. I--'
She hesitated again. Only the fraction of a second again, but the wheels of her heart and mind spun.
'I love you.
The words almost spilled from her. Were they such easy words, then? she taunted herself. No, a heartbeat told her that they were not. She did love him. His smile, his dark eyes, the way he had looked, primitive and exciting and male, in the broad arc of the brimming sun. But that wasn't it. She loved him because he had been there. Hostile at first. Audacious at best. But he had been there for her in every sense of the words, sensitive, caring. Gentle and tender.
But he was good at that, she reminded herself. He was an accomplished lover. A good man, a practiced lover. Be his friend! she warned herself. Don't expect much; it will hurt too much if you let your feelings get out of hand.
Too late; her feelings were out of hand. She just had to take care not to let it show.
'You're very special,' she finished quickly, feeling the probing of his ebony eyes. She smiled and stood on her toes to kiss him quickly. 'Very special.'
'Hey, I'm an obliging fellow,' he said lightly. 'Come on--the kittens must need an outing as badly as Samson.'
'And the cellar will need a cleaning,' Alexi moaned.
Rex didn't argue the point. When they reached the Brandywine house, Alexi retrieved her things from the car while Rex opened the house. By the time she reached the door, she practically tripped over the kittens to enter. Rex had let them up first thing, it seemed. Alexi quickly scooped the pair of them into her arms.
'Hi, sweeties. Did you think that you had been deserted? I'm sorry!'
Samson came running out of the kitchen and slid down the hallway, barking enthusiastically. The kittens
